More than 32 tonnes of cannabis worth nearly £60million have been seized by the Spanish police in the world’s largest ever marijuana drug bust.
Authorities said they have arrested 20 people – nine men and 11 women, aged between 20 and 59 – in connection with a ‘complex’ drugs network which sent vacuum-packed marijuana across Spain, Switzerland, Holland, Germany and Belgium.
The gang were arrested following raids in Toledo, Ciudad Real, Valencia and Asturias last month but details of Operation Gardens were only made public today.
The Guardia Civil said the amount of packaged cannabis seized in the raids is ‘the largest seizure of this substance, not only in Spain, but also internationally’.
The Spanish police have seized more than 32 tonnes of cannabis in the largest ever raid of packaged marijuana
The 32,370.2kg of marijuana buds seized in multiple raids across Spain has a street value of more than £57million
The 32,370.2kg of buds seized are the equivalent of 1.1million marijuana plants and have a street value of more than £57million.
The seized drugs weigh nearly as much as three double decker buses and more than five adult African elephants.
Police said the business was run by different ‘companies’ who carried out separate parts of the operation.
This included buying the seeds, planting them, collecting them, soring the dried cannabis buds in warehouses and vacuum packaging them.
Footage shared by the Guardia Civil on Twitter shows officers discovering hundreds of brown boxes filled with the drug during one of their raids.